OnScene: Curry impresses, doesn’t make the cut

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Patrick Rodgers ran off four straight birdies late in his round Saturday and finished with a par save for a 6-under 64, giving him a share of the lead with Ben Martin in The RSM Classic and another chance at his first PGA TOUR title. Martin was poised to match that score until he came up short on the 18th green, chipped to just inside 5 feet and missed the par putt. He had a 65. They were at 14-under 198 in the final PGA TOUR event of the year, and it was far from a two-man race. Ten players were within two shots of the lead, a group that included Sahith Theegala (68), Brian Harman (64) and even Harry Higgs, who was atop the leaderboard at the start of the day and had a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 70. Cole Hammer, who graduated from Texas in May and is playing on a sponsor exemption, was tied for the lead going into the weekend. He was 4 over through five holes and managed a 72. Even so, he was only four shots behind. Rodgers hit the reset button after last season ended in August, setting up a plan with swing coach Jeff Smith that entails making incremental improvements. It appears to be working. He tied for third in Bermuda three weeks ago and has been a steady presence during the fall events. Rodgers was the top-ranked amateur in the world his final year at Stanford. He is making his 226th start on the PGA TOUR and still searching for his first win. It didn’t take long to get in the mix. He holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole, stuffed his approach to 6 feet on the tough 14th, made an 8-foot birdie on the par-5 15th and capped off his run with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 16th. “I feel like I put together a tiny offseason with my coach, Jeff Smith. We really put a good plan together,” Rodgers said. “I’ve been feeling more comfortable. It’s a hard game, and it’s always nice to see hard work pay off.” Eight of the top players on the leaderboard have yet to win on the PGA TOUR. Theegala certainly had his chances during his rookie year that saw him reach the TOUR Championship. Taylor Pendrith (65) got plenty of experience playing his first Presidents Cup in September. Taylor Montgomery has had a strong start to his rookie season with five finishes in the top 15. He already is up to No. 65 in the world. Martin’s lone PGA TOUR victory was eight years ago in Las Vegas. Adam Svensson of Canada made the biggest move with a 62, including an eagle on the par-5 15th hole, putting him one shot behind along with Theegala and Andrew Putnam, who also shared the 36-hole lead. He saved par from a bunker on the last hole for a 69.

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The event in Puerto Rico was made a team fundraiser in 2018 to help the island recover from Hurricane Maria, but the Puerto Rico Open returned in full for 2019 with Martin Trainer emerging victorious by three shots. Trainer will return to defend his title in 2020 alongside many of the game’s up-and-coming stars and world No. 51 Ian Poulter. RELATED: Inside The Field FIELD NOTES: The PGA TOUR’s alternate-field events will feature 120 players in the 2019-20 season. Brendon Todd won the first alternate-field event of the season, the Bermuda Championship, and that helped him earn a spot in this week’s World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. … Trainer’s victory was his lone top-10 of last season. He went on to finish 132nd on the FedExCup standings. He’s looking to become the first person to defend their Puerto Rico Open title… Ian Poulter, at 51st in the world, is the highest-ranked golfer in the field after missing out on the WGC-Mexico cut-off… Viktor Hovland is the highest-ranked golfer in the world in the field… Past winners in Puerto Rico including D.A. Points, Alex Cejka, Chesson Hadley, Scott Brown, and George McNeil will be teeing it up… There is a robust list of sponsor exemptions playing in Puerto Rico including Sam Saunders and Bryson Nimmer, who played last year while still at Clemson University and finished T47 in his TOUR debut… Kristoffer Ventura also received a sponsor exemption a year ago. He’d go on to win twice on the Korn Ferry Tour and is back in Puerto Rico as a full-fledged TOUR member. Davis Thompson, who plays for the University of Georgia, also is in the field. He finished T23 at The RSM Classic in the fall and recently had a record-setting victory at the prestigious Jones Cup, one of the top amateur events in the country. Thompson set a tournament record by shooting 13 under par in his nine-shot win. Past Jones Cup champions include Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed. … Puerto Rico has been a catalyst for such stars as Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau, all of whom finished runner-up in this event before earning their first PGA TOUR victory. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 300 FedExCup points COURSE: Coco Beach Golf & CC (Championship), 7,506 yards, par 72. STORYLINES: George McNeill, who won the event in 2012 and is back in the field for 2020, was part of a group of PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour golfers who teed it up at a charity pro-am that raised more than $500,000 for relief efforts on the island. McNeil and Cheyenne Woods were part of the winning team… Harry Higgs is the highest-ranked golfer on the FedExCup points standing in the field this week. Higgs was tops on the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica Order of Merit in 2018 and should have some good vibes in the Caribbean… There are a handful of local connections to the tournament via sponsor exemptions and the like for this week – spots are designated for golfers from the Caribbean, South America, and Central America – but one notable absence will be Rafa Campos, who requested a medical exemption from the PGA TOUR in late January. Campos earned PGA TOUR status via the Korn Ferry Tour a year ago… Seven of the 11 Puerto Rico Open winners made the tournament their maiden TOUR victory. 72-HOLE RECORD: 267, Chesson Hadley (2014). 18-HOLE RECORD: 63, Derek Lamely (3rd round, 2010), James Driscoll (1st round, 2011), Chris Tidland (2nd round, 2011), Scott Brown (2nd round, 2013), James Driscoll (2nd round, 2014), Trey Mullinax (1st round, 2017), J.J. Henry (4th round, 2017). LAST TIME: Trainer notched his first-ever PGA TOUR victory by three shots – the largest margin of victory ever at the Puerto Rico Open. Trainer, who was using a fill-in caddie for the week with his usual bagman out sick, shot a 5-under 67 Sunday to end the week at 15 under. Trainer started the day going 3 under for his first five holes but then recorded back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 6 and 7 to open the door ever-so-slightly to his chasers. But he went 4 under for his final 10 holes – including a birdie on the par-5 18th, to seal the deal. Daniel Berger, Roger Sloan, Johnson Wagner, and Aaron Baddeley finished T2 at 12-under-par. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 2:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. (Golf Channel). Sunday, 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. (Golf Channel).

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DETROIT – Absorbed in its entirety, Cameron Champ’s round of 7-under 65 Friday morning would provide ample explanation for his 36-hole lead at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. But upon further review, you could look at the torrid 8-under 28 going out on Detroit Golf Club’s front nine, then measure it against the inward 1-over 37 and wonder, why such a stark contrast in performance? Champ could, in turn, smile, and suggest you widen the lens if you want to really study the roller-coaster of this, his rookie season. To wit: In his first seven tournaments there was a win, four other top-15 finishes, and 592 FedExCup points, but since the Farmers Insurance Open in late January, Champ has missed eight cuts, withdrawn once, had a best finish of T-28, and earned a mere 39 FEC points. All of which – the 28-37 in Round 2, the fact that he went four months on the PGA TOUR without breaking 70 with Thursday’s opening 66, and a return to contention after months of early exits – he is most happy to explain. “You know, I’m still young,� said Champ, who signed his card and headed home at 13-under 131, at the time two better than Ryan Armour (69) with the entire afternoon wave on the golf course. “I just turned 24, so I had a lot coming at me and distractions. I had to just really adjust and prioritize.� As explosive as Champ’s power is, it is another commodity he possesses that likely will maintain the much-needed balance in his game. “He’s a good kid, a gentle soul,� said Jeff Camp, Cameron’s father, who walked Friday’s round as his son put up back-to-back scores in the 60s for the first time since the Sony Open in Hawaii, way back in January. “He knows he has to just grind.� On his first nine Friday, though, it was not a grind. It was Champ at his very best, flashing the sort of incomparable power that would make you wonder how anyone can beat him. He hit six of seven fairways, reached both par-5s in two, was on in regulation at all nine greens, and required but 12 putts. For a sampling of the unmatched power Champ can unleash, consider the par-5 seventh, set up at 545 yards. J.B. Holmes, hardly a singles hitter, was dead center, out there a robust 327 yards. Yet, Champ was 38 yards beyond him, and provided with the opportunity to hit just a 177-yard second shot to 8 feet. He made that eagle, which coming on the heels of five birdies in a row went a long reason in explaining the sprint to the turn in 28. “One of those nines, kind of everything went my way,� said Champ, who also drove it 368 yards at the 635-yard, par-5 fourth and reached in two to set up a two-putt birdie. True enough, that, because a ticklish 15-footer straight downhill at the par-4 wasn’t one he expected to make but did. And at the par-3 ninth, his 20-footer found the hole, too. But Cameron Champ lets those words of his greatest mentor in life – his grandfather, Mack Champ – constantly echo in his head. “It’s not where you start that matters, it is where you finish.� So, the six birdies and one eagle on his first nine didn’t matter; it was the bogey on the par-4 13th and the bogey at the par-4 18th that offset the only inward birdie, at the par-5 17th, that Cameron Champ digested after his round and will use as motivation for Saturday’s third round. It’s not dissimilar to how he maintained composure these past few months. “Just embracing failure,� he said. In other words, he has put the early-season success behind him and learned much from that stretch where he failed to play on the weekend of six straight tournaments. “I think it has, personally,� said Champ, when asked if the rough stretch was in some ways better for his career than the win at Sanderson Farms last October and the string of high finishes that stopped at the Sony. “At times, I can definitely be tough on myself. But I’m learning, especially the last month-and-a-half (has been good for me). It’s sent me back to the drawing board and to think back to how I play good golf, how I think around the course.�

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